I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus such as a fixed disk drive or a floppy disk drive.
II. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In conventional disk drives such as fixed and floppy disk drives, various measures have been taken to prevent damage to the magnetic head and magnetic medium due to an undesirable friction therebetween when these drives are transported or moved.
In a typical method for preventing the above problem, a case is temporarily removed from the disk drive, and the magnetic head and the associated arm are fixed by screws to the main unit when the disk drive is to be transported.
However, the removal of the screws is time-consuming and cumbersome. When a disk drive is moved for a short distance, e.g., from room to room, maintenance personnel often forget or neglect to fix the head and the like by the screws. As a result, the magnetic head and the magnetic medium are often damaged due to vibration and shock.
The present inventors previously proposed a mechanism wherein a lock lever and a brake lever biased by springs were released to stop a capstan and a rotor upon deenergization of a solenoid when power to the disk drive is turned off, thereby preventing damage. However, when the disk drive is powered, the lock lever and the brake lever must be simultaneously attracted by the solenoid against the biasing force of the spring. Therefore, a high-power solenoid must be used, resulting in inconvenience.